A management letter accompanies many audit reports. It records control weaknesses and process gaps noticed during the audit. It is separate from the opinion on the financial statements.
Start with severity language. Items that affect the reliability of recorded amounts deserve earlier attention than housekeeping suggestions about file naming. Ask your auditor which points would reappear as formal findings if left untouched.
Owners sometimes treat every comment as equally urgent. That spreads the team thin. Pick two or three items that reduce cash leakage or cut-off error, assign owners, and set a date before the next quarterly close.
If a finding mentions segregation of duties in a small office, the answer is rarely hiring three new people overnight. Compensating reviews—owner sign-off on bank transfers, for example—often satisfy the practical intent.
Keep the prior-year letter beside the current one. Recurring comments signal that last year’s fix did not stick. That pattern matters more to lenders and group auditors than a brand-new minor note.